Bihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic Languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Bhojpuri and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking population form more than 20% of Nepalese population. Despite the large number of speakers of these languages, they have not been constitutionally recognized in India. Even in Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters.These languages were legally absorbed under the subordinate label of HINDI in the 1961 Census. Such state and national politics are creating conditions for language endangerments.Nalanda Open University offers various courses on Bihari Languages (Magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili). The first success for spreading Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when Hindi displaced Urdu as the sole official language of the Province. In this struggle between competing Hindi and Urdu, the potential claims of the three large mother tongues in the region - Magahi, Bhojpuri and Maithili were ignored. After independence Hindi was again given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act,1950.

YUSUF SHAMSI @ DUBAI